FTX’s Bankman-Fried Says He Will Testify Before US Congress

Sam Bankman-Fried, the creator of FTX, has declared he will appear before the US Congress after considering the collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange, Al Jazeera reported.

On Sunday, Dec. 4, Bankman-Fried announced that he would go before the US House Committee on Financial Services once he had "finished learning and reviewing" the circumstances leading to FTX's bankruptcy filing last month.

“Once I have finished learning and reviewing what happened, I would feel like it was my duty to appear before the committee and explain,” the former FTX CEO wrote on Twitter.

“I’m not sure that will happen by the 13th. But when it does, I will testify,” he added.

Bankman-Fried wrote the tweet in reply to Maxine Waters, the Democratic congresswoman who chairs the committee after she invited him to appear at a hearing scheduled to examine FTX’s collapse.

On Dec. 13, the US House Financial Services Committee plans to hear testimony from companies and people connected to the crash that rocked the cryptocurrency industry.

Despite admitting to having made "a lot of mistakes" in his management of the crypto firm, Bankman-Fried, who was once among the richest men in the world, denied ever intending to scam anyone.

Bankman-Fried asserted during a conference hosted by the New York Times and CNBC that he was unaware of being under criminal investigation and denied "knowingly" combining investor funds with those of a related trading firm, Alameda.

He also said he had rejected advice from his lawyer to stay silent as he felt he had “a duty to explain what happened.”

FTX is a Bahamas-based cryptocurrency exchange. The exchange was founded in 2019 and, at its peak in July 2021, had over one million users and was the third-largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume. FTX is incorporated in Antigua and Barbuda and headquartered in The Bahamas.FTX is closely associated with FTX.US, a separate exchange available to US residents.

FTX, which was valued at $32bn at its peak, filed for bankruptcy protection last month after the collapse of an acquisition deal involving rival exchange Binance prompted billions in withdrawals from customers.